Books published by publisher Pen and Sword Military

A memoir of the lethal conflict in the former Yugoslavia, by a British soldier who was on the front lines. This is a young cavalry lieutenant’s moving and shocking account of front line service in the cauldron of war. His troop of Scimitar light-armored vehicles was attached to the 1 CHESHIRE Battle Group, under the charismatic command of Colonel Bob Stewart. Fresh from Germany, he and his men found themselves in a highly political and lethally dangerous civil war. They witnessed appalling atrocities and human tragedy on a giant scale. Yet both soldiers and civilians showed massive courage and resilience. Thanks to the author's diary, we have here an extraordinary, spontaneous, and important account of British troops performing vital military and humanitarian tasks, described by war correspondent and MP Martin Bell as “earning its place among the impartial narratives of the Bosnian War.”

These are fascinating memoirs of a British officer who fought the legendary Pathan tribesmen of the Northwest Frontier, right up to the beginning of WW2. He describes desperate battles against this highly skilled and ruthless enemy. Pathan atrocities were commonplace and no prisoners were taken.Cummings served in two Frontier units, the South Waziristan Scouts and the Corps of Guides. Waziristan, then the home of Wazirs and Mahsuds, the most war like of Pathan tribes, is today sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. Frontier Fighters describes the closing stages of Britain’s imperial presence on the subcontinent. Yet beside the pig sticking, polo and hunting, there was great excitement danger and gallantry. A unique bond existed between the British and their native troops. Paradoxically Cummings went on to command a Pathan regiment in North Africa in WW2.

“How a soldier of German ancestry hid his identity to serve with the British Army . . . [Anderson] has pieced together Schwarz’s remarkable story” (The Daily Telegraph). It was a time of misguided loyalties. The First World War British Army, in a shameful act of patriotism, was withdrawing from the front line veterans who had a German name and posting them to a non-combatants regiment. At home, anti-German feeling was reaching fever pitch. However, one young man, the son of a German father, conspired to have the Army send him into battle. In doing so he became a hero. This is the story of the “German Tommy,” Walter Schwarz (alias Lieutenant Walter Lancelot Merritt, Military Cross and Bar, bearer of the king’s pardon), told in full for the first time after years of research in Australia and Britain. It reveals why and how others helped the young man from Queensland—an Australian Army deserter—survive in an atmosphere that was poisonous at home and in battle for those of German blood who were, nevertheless, like Schwarz, loyal to king and country. Ken Anderson has gone behind the accepted facts to claim how official documents were altered and members of a secret society lied and swore false testimony to help Schwarz, acting on their oath to help a fellow member in distress. The book offers an insight into the way in which people of German origin were treated in Australia and Britain during the First World War, as well as how Freemasonry, at its peak at that time, helped men of humble backgrounds improve their status in life.

The date: 14 October 1918 – a misty early morning, east of Ledegem, Belgium. Young British Army officer Lieutenant Walter Lancelot Merritt MC carries a large red flag to indicate the center of a brigade-strength advance. He moves ahead of the main force. Close to the German lines a bullet smashes into Merritt’s right leg. Despite the crippling wound he continues to hold the flag aloft ensuring following troops maintain the line as they move on to take long-entrenched German territory. Merritt’s courage and leadership resulted in the award of a Bar to his Military Cross. While undergoing treatment in postwar England, he confessed in a petition to King George his real name was Walter Schwarz. He had deserted from the Australian Imperial Force in 1915 because he feared his German ancestry would prevent him being sent into battle. George, who had personally decorated him as Merritt at Buckingham Palace, accepted his story and pardoned him for his desertion. The mystery has remained to this day: How did Schwarz manage to maintain his cover for six long years under the most trying circumstances imaginable? Schwarz’s only comment was he would like to say more but could not. He never did. The author has gone behind the accepted facts to tell for the first time the true story of this gallant deserter. He reveals that official documents have been altered and argues that members of a secret society lied and swore false testimony to help Schwarz, acting on their oath to aid a fellow member in distress. The book offers an insight into the way in which people of German origin were treated in Australia and Britain during the First World War. It is a story of bravery and deception unique in the history of war.

By the spring of 1940, the phoney war suddenly became very real. In April Hitler's forces, invaded Norway and a month later began their assault on France and the Low Countries. The Anglo/French allies were routed. The British escaped to fight another day after evacuating the bulk of their armies at Dunkirk. When on 10 May Winston Churchill became Prime Minister he soon discovered that the nation's defenses were in a parlous state and a Nazi invasion was a very real possibility. By the end of the month, nearly a million British citizens had joined the Local Defense Volunteers, soon to become the Home Guard, of Dad's Army fame. Churchill, however, realized the Home Guard was initially of little more than PR value, an important morale booster. A more serious deterrent needed to be created if Hitler's panzer divisions and the full might of the blitzkrieg were to be thwarted. Consequently, to supplement the sorely ill-equipped regular forces (all of their tanks and most of their artillery had been abandoned in France) a new, British resistance force was required. The intentionally blandly named ‘Auxiliary Units’ might have been the answer. Formed in the Summer of 1940, in great secrecy, this force of 'stay behind' saboteurs and assassins was intended to cause havoc behind the German front line should the Wehrmacht gain a foothold in Britain. Their mission was to go to cover, hiding in underground bunkers for the first 14 days of invasion and then springing up, at nightfall, to gather intelligence, interrogate prisoners, destroying fuel and ammunition dumps as they went about their deadly business. Each Auxilier knew his life expectancy was short, a matter of weeks. He also knew he could not tell a soul about his activities, even his spouse. 'Dads Army' they were not. Following the publication of his 50th anniversary history of the Battle of Britain, A Nation Alone, written in association with the RAF Museum, Arthur Ward looked deeper into the story of the Invasion Summer of 1940 and enjoyed unique opportunities to interview those involved with Auxiliary Units at the very top and in the front line, as volunteers in a six-man cell.

Billy Yank or Billy Yankee was the name given to the Union soldiers of the North during the American Civil War: and a famous and enduring symbol of the period. Typically Billy Yank is presented dressed in regulation blue uniform topped with a forage hat, the standard headdress used by the military of the period. This handy guide delves a little deeper and sets out to discover exactly what the typical ‘Billy Yank’ looked like and how they lived. Compiled by two experts on the subject of military uniforms of the period, and crammed with fascinating facts and images, this is an excellent glimpse into the life and times of the union soldier and a valuable addition to the popular G.I. series.

Two officers made home runs via a tunnel dug in the open air beneath a wooden vaulting horse from Stalag Luft III. The author, a Royal Air Force bomber captain, was shot down over Germany in 1942 and imprisoned in Stalag-Luft III (site of the 'Great Escape' later in the war). He escaped after 10 months and, accompanied by a fellow RAF officer, made his way back to England. He relates his story in three distinct phases: the construction of a tunnel (its entrance camouflaged by the wooden vaulting horse in the exercise yard) and hiding the large quantities of sand he dug; the escape; and the journey on foot and by train to the port of Stettin, where Williams and his fellow escapee stowed away aboard a Danish ship, the Norensen. The story of the flight across Germany is particularly tense, as Williams relates how their clothing and fabricated travel papers became shabbier and more conspicuous. This classic escape-and-evasion story, an exciting read and is arguably the most ingenious POW escape of WWII. The Wooden Horse became a legend among servicemen long before its publication in 1949.It was famously filmed by Jack Lee, starring David Tomlinson, Anthony Steel, Bryan Forbes and Peter Finch.

Charles Townshend achieved international fame, as a captain, when he commanded the besieged garrison at Chitral (now Pakistan) in 1895. As a result, he became known as Chitral Charlie.Decorated by Queen Victoria and lionized by the British public, his passage up through the Army was assured and, in 1916, he was given command on 6th Indian Division and sent to Mesopotamia. Here he won a series of stunning victories as his ill-supported division swept all before it in a devastating advance up the River Tigris. He triumphed brilliantly at Kurna, Amara and Kut but then, against all the tenets of military common sense, he advanced up the River Tigris to take Baghdad. By now overreached, he was confronted by a determined Turkish foe. His Division was depleted and exhausted. Townshend withdrew to Kut, where he was besieged and forced into a humiliating surrender. The mistreatment of the British POWs by the Turks only added to Townshends shame.This fascinating and objective biography examines Townshends controversial conduct during and after the siege and assesses whether his dramatic fall from grace and popularity was fair.

Windermere and Grasmere in the Great War is an expert account of these Lake District town's fascinating contributions to the Great War effort from the outbreak of war in 1914, to the long-awaited Allied victory in 1918\. The book is designed to be accessible to all, and for this reason it includes the history of the South Lakes area of Cumbria, where the scarcity of visitors was felt during the Great War. Interesting stories include Lake Windermere’s setting as a watery runway, rumors that a German airship was operating from a secret base near Grasmere, the double life of Arthur Ransome, and Cumberland Wrestling’s postwar boom. The book also takes a detailed look at the graduates of the Lakes Flying Company, the Hardistys, VAD nurse Nellie Taylor, the Baisbrowns, the boatmen who sewed bags for sand, the gunpowder carts, Beatrix Potter’s opinions, conscientious objectors, landowners and gentry, Cobby the horse, railwaymen, and prisoner of war Frederick Mallinson. It acts as a reference guide to local war memorials, and a chronological guide to Belgian refugees in south Lakeland whose homes included Ellerthwaite Lodge, Windermere, Calgarth Park auxiliary hospital, Troutbeck Bridge, and the village of Finsthwaite. St Martin’s next to the Old England Hotel, Windermere, has more memorials than any other church in Cumbria – including the Cathedral (Carlisle). Overall, this is a poignant testimony to the bravery, self-sacrifice and determination of the people of Windermere and Grasmere during the Great War, who sought to find normality in a reality so far removed from anything they had ever known.

"Henry Tyndall was a typical product of the Victorian age—an intensely patriotic army officer who served in India, on the North-West Frontier, on the Western Front and in East Africa at the height of the British empire. For 20 years, from 1895 to 1915, he kept a detailed diary that gives a vivid insight into his daily life and concerns, his fellow officers and men, and the British army of his day. He also left a graphic account of his experiences on campaign in the First World War and in the Third Afghan War. B.A. 'Jimmy' James has edited and annotated Tyndall's diary in order to make it fully accessible to the modern reader. As he notes in his introduction, 'this marching soldier of the queen was a gallant officer who conscientiously served his sovereign wherever duty called... his diary deserves attention as it reflects the manners, customs and attitudes of this vanished age.' "